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Project Ecclesia

St. Francis by-the-Sea

St. Francis by-the-Sea is an American Catholic church in Laguna Beach, California, built 1933–34.

Front of St. Francis by-the-Sea on Park Avenue: a white stucco church with an open wooden bell tower and cross, red tile roofs and a tiled entry porch with the sign "St. Francis by the Sea, The American Catholic Church", the number 430 and a National Register plaque.
Plate 101 · St. Francis by-the-Sea · Laguna Beach · American Catholic · 1933–34 · Photographed October 2023

Built in 1933–34 by the Rev. Percy Wise Clarkson and his followers, largely from rubble left by the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Clarkson, a former Episcopal priest who became the founding bishop of this American Catholic church in 1933, gave it the full plan of a cathedral (sanctuary, chancel, nave, side aisle and choir loft) inside an interior of about 17 by 60 feet. Guinness once listed it as the world's smallest cathedral, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Further plates · 3

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